All articles tagged with #small boat crossings
A court in London temporarily blocked the deportation of an Eritrean asylum seeker to France under a new UK-France treaty aimed at reducing small-boat crossings, marking the first legal challenge related to the agreement. The case highlights ongoing tensions over migration policies and the political efforts to deter dangerous crossings across the English Channel.
UK government data shows a mixed picture of its asylum strategy, with slight increases in hotel use and asylum applications but improvements in processing times and voluntary departures, though challenges like high small boat crossings and court backlogs remain.
Small boat crossings to the UK in the first half of 2024 increased by 48% compared to the previous year, with nearly 20,000 arrivals, driven by factors beyond weather, including smuggling networks and migration demand, amid ongoing political and diplomatic discussions.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's claims on small boat crossings, asylum backlog, and Albanian asylum seekers have been fact-checked. While small boat crossings have decreased in 2023, they could still rise again over the summer months. The government is on track to clear the asylum backlog for initial decisions on asylum applications made before 28 June 2022, but the deadline of the end of the year would be missed. The UK has returned 1,800 Albanian nationals to their home country since December 2022, but this figure includes foreign national offenders and people who have returned voluntarily.